Welt guide for shoe inseam sewing machines



March 1954 F. c. EASTMAN WELT GUIDE FOR SHOE INSEAM SEWING MACHINES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Jan. 21, 1949 Inventor Fred C. Eastman March 30, 1954 F, c. EASTMAN WELT GUIDE FOR SHOE INSEAM SEWING MACHINES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Jan. 21, 1949 V Inventor Fred C Eastman granted August 28, 1934, .Alfred B. Morrill, and in is to provide -ment therefor in a machine of the type referred Par Of the operator.

Patented Mar. 30, 1954 2,673,538 WELT GUIDE FOR SHOE INSEAM SEWING MACHINES Fred C. Eastman,

Marblehead, Mass., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation,

Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Original application Jan 71,990, now Patent No 4, 1953. Divided and 1952, Serial No. 289,732

3 Claims. (Cl. 112-52) The present invention relates to improvements in welt guides for shoe inseam sewing machines of the type'disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,030,721, granted June 25, 1912, and No. 1,108,560, granted August 25, 1914, both upon application of Andrew Eppler, and No. 1,971,575, upon application of a copending application for United States Letters Patent Serial No. 71,990, filed January 21, 1949, in the name of the present inventor, of which latter application the present one is a division and from which Patent No. 2,647,478 has been granted August 4, 1953.

The welt guide of the patent to Eppler No. 1,030,721 is intended for use with the machine of Eppler Patent No. 1,108,560. This welt guide is constructed with a main body or block secured to a movable mounting to provide an aperture for a welt. The block has connected to it a sheet metal shield and an adjustable edge gage for accommodating th aperture to the width of welt led through the guide. Angular, vertical and horizontal adjustments of the guide on its mounting also are accommodated to a limited extent through the manner in which the block is secured to the mounting.

Adjustments of the welt guide in the patented 'machineare readily accomplished; but, on account of the care and attention needed on the part of the operator to insure proper adjustments of the guide for sewing shoes of different types or styles, much of the operator's time may be consumed in the adjusting operation, especially where frequent changes in type or style of shoe occur.

The primary object of the present invention a welt guide and a mounting arrangeto in the Eppler and Morrill patents above noted, with which the amount of time consumed in changing from one type or style of shoe to another is substantially reduced and with which an accurate adjustment may be obtained in the welt guide without special care or attention on the To these ends the illustrated shoe inseam sewing machine is equipped with the usual stitch forming devices, including a curved hook needle, a welt guide and a movable mounting for the welt guide, between which guide and mounting is provided a special support memwelt shield adjustably clamped thereto and separate means for clamping the stud to the movable mounting member uniformly in predetermined relationship. Once the Welt guide shield is properly adjusted on the mounting, it may be removed merely by clamping the stud and another guide uary 21, 1949, Serial No. i 2,647,478, dated August this application May 24,

and support member of the same construction may be substituted therefor without requiring further adjustment. After using the second guide for a series of sewing operations, the first guide and support member may be replaced in operating position again without requiring any fur ther adjustments for proper sewing operations. Preferably a quick acting clamp is provided for connecting the support member to the mounting comprising an eccentric shaft acting on afiat surface of the stud, which insures proper rotational position of the stud about its lengthwise axis on the mounting,

These and other features of the invention including the devices, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed which, together with the advantages to be obtained, will readily be understood from the following detailed specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in right side elevation, partly broken away and in section of the head of a shoe inseam sewing machine embodying the features of the present invention with a portion of a shoe shown in operating relation thereto;

Fig. 2 is a detail view Of the welt guide shown in Fig} 1 andits actuating mechanism, indicating the manner of operation while sewing a shoe;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the welt guide and its mounting in the machine; and

Fig. 4 is a front detail view of the welt guide after removal from the machine.

The shoe machin illustrated in the drawings is arranged for sewing an upper 2 and a welt 4 to an insole 6' of a welt shoe supported upon a last 8. The machine is provided with the usual operating devices of a welt shoe sewing machine including a curved hook needle It, a needle looper I2, a welt guide having a frame or shield M, a channel guide l5 and other stitch forming devices similar, except as hereinafter described, to those of the patents above identified. For actuating the stitch forming devices they are connected withmechanisms driven: from a mainsewing shaft l I.

is led toward the sewing point through a welt guide arranged for convenient adjustment to provide the most effective application. It is essential in ad usting the position of the welt guide on the machine to so locate it that the needle in entering the welt will engage a stitch receiving groove in the welt, indicated at it in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings.

The Welt guide in the illustrated machine, as in the machine of the Morrill patent is secured to a movable mounting member carried by pivot points on a pair of swinging arms so arranged that the welt engaging end of the guide moves in a circular path corresponding to that of the needle. Accordingly, the welt engaging end of the guide must be connected in one relation only to the pivot points of support offered by the swinging arms. For this purpose the movable welt guide mounting of the patented machine consists of a bar having at its forward end a reversely bent strip of metal forming a guiding shield for the welt. Such an arrangement, however, provides little opportunity for adjustment of the guiding shield on the mounting bar, particularly when different sizes and shapes of welt are being sewn. For locking the welt guide intermittently in operating position in the prior machine, the rear one of the arms forms a part of a lever, the upper arm of which has a ratchet and a periodically actuated locking pawl mechanism.

The welt guide shield i l of the present ma-- chine is similar to that disclosed in the Morrill patent, but, instead of being secured directly to the movable mounting connecting pivot points on a pair of arms, the present shield is secured to a separate support member disposed between the shield and the mounting. The support member is in the form of a block l8 adjustably clamped to a collar on a stud 28. To accommodate welts of different widths, the block E8 has adjustably secured to it an edge gage 2|. The stud 28 has an enlarged flattened end clamped in predetermined angular relationship about the axis of the stud within a lug at the forward end of the mounting member or bar, indicated at 22, joining pivots on a pair of swinging arms 24 and 2B. To clamp the stud 2G in the bar 22 the fiat surface of the stud is engaged by an eccentric shaft 2: rotatable in the mounting bar 22 and having a downwardly extending handle 28 for rotating it.

The locking ratchet and pawl mechanism of the illustrated machine comprises an upper ratchet arm of a lever, including the arm 26, a

pawl lever 29 mounted on a shaft 38 and provided with a roll engaging a cam 32 on the sewing shaft With each particular size and shape of welt a separate close fitting shield is required, necessitating separate angular and vertical adjustments of the shield on the movable mounting bar 22. Such adjustments are readily obtained in the present machine by loosening a clamping nut 35 on the stud 2E! and by shifting the position of the block it on the stud either angularly, vertically or horizontally throughout the range of an enlarged circular opening 3E3 within which the stud is movable laterally in the block, a washer 38 being provided to cover the opening. After tightening the nut 3d the parts are held clamped in a desired relationship. When it is necessary to change a shield for a different size or shape of welt, instead of removing the shield from the support block is and losing the adjustments previously obtained, the eccentric shaft 21 is rotated to release the stud 20. A new shield, block and stud are then substituted and, if necessary, adjusted in the proper fashion. When a return to the first adjusted shield employed on the machine is required, no further adjustments are needed inasmuch as a uniformly effective adjusted relationship of the stud 20 and the support block l8 insures a correct location of any individual shield under all similar conditions. Thus, by maintaining a number of combined shields and blocks, corresponding to the number of different styles and sizes of shoes, no further time is consumed in changing adjustments of the shields, there being provided a properly adjusted shield and stud for each style and size of shoes.

The nature and scope of the invention having been indicated and a particular embodiment having been described, what is claimed is:

1. A shoe inseam sewing machine having stitch forming devices including a curved hook needle, a welt guide shield and a movable mounting for the welt guide shield, in combination with a support member between the welt guide shield and the movable mounting comprising a stud, a block on which the welt guide shield is secured adjustably clamped to the stud, and means for clamping the stud to the movable mounting uniformly in predetermined angular relationship about the axis of the stud.

2. A shoe inseam sewing machine having stitch forming devices including a curved hook needle, a welt guide shield and a movable mounting for the welt guide shield, in combination with a support member between the welt guide shield and the movable mounting comprising a stud having a flattened side, a block on which the welt guide shield is secured adjustably clamped to the stud, and an eccentric shaft in the movable mounting for clamping the flat surface of the stud uniformly in predetermined position on the movable mounting.

3. A shoe inseam sewing machine having stitch forming devices including a curved hook needle, a welt guide shield and a movable mounting for the welt guide shield, in combination with a support member between the welt guide shield and the movable mounting comprising a stud having a flattened side and a block having an enlarged circular opening through which the stud passes and in which the stud is movable laterally, said shield being secured to the block, means for clamping the stud uniformly in predetermined position on the movable mounting member and a nut threaded on the stud for adjustably clamping the block to the stud.

FRED C. EASTMAN.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 468,202 France Apr. 18, 1914 

